MESSAGE

Dear students,
I will phone the school secretary tomorrow to see if I am allowed to go back. If I am not, I will be back on Wednesday for sure. I cannot wait to be back to school again!
I have prepared a schedule of work which I will hand in next time I see you.
Hope you are also eager to start our lessons again.
Mariano

Here go the corrections of the previous task:
ANSWER KEY:
awareness
healthy
sporadically
cycle
clockwork
while
kilometres
was
going
motivation
weight
lungs
resistance
obese
calories
well being
burning
tips
Lifts
journeys
head

First of all, I really appreciate the participation of those who did send messages. Here goes my second post.
Go to
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1412_weekender/page26.shtml
and listen to a radio programme on KEEPING FIT. Complete the spaces of the transcript below:

Weekender © BBC Learning English

Callum: Hello, I'm Callum Robertson and this is Weekender.
Today, Friday April 7th is World Health Day. A day promoted by the World
Health Organisation to raise ____________ of health issues around the world.
This got me thinking about my own health and fitness and that of my
colleagues. Do we take good care of our bodies? Do we try and stay fit. I asked
my colleagues what they do to keep fit and ___________. Listen out for the things
that they say, how many different things are mentioned?
Colleagues
I go to the gym very ____________ and I don't own a car so I walk everywhere and I walk very
fast.
To keep fit I _________ to and from work everyday, so I feel that keeps me pretty fit. But
sometimes I also go to the gym.
Well the main thing I do is I go to the gym and I go pretty much like ____________ because I do think it's important to go regularly.
I don't really do anything to keep fit and healthy.
I do a lot of walking and I try to go to the gym when I can but unfortunately I haven't actually
been for a ___________.
Well I'll tell you one thing I don't do, I never go to gyms, I don't like gyms at all. In the
summer I play tennis but I'll tell you what I do every day – I walk my kids to school. That's
about a three ____________ walk, that's pretty good!
I try to go to the gym every week if I can, but I haven't actually been for the last three weeks,
so that's pretty ___________ .

Callum: There 4 different things mentioned there, did you catch them all? There was
cycling, walking, playing tennis and a lot of mentions of going to, and not
going to the gym there. Matt, the first speaker talked about going 'sporadically'
to the gym, which means, not going very often, not regularly. Jackie, on the
other hand likes to go regularly, she says she goes like clockwork. Elena and
Helen both try to go to the gym but not really seem to manage and Doug
doesn't go at all.
I have to say that I am a member of a gym, but recently I haven't been going
regularly. I do cycle about 24 kilometres a day – but I wish I ___________ more
dedicated in __________ to the gym. To help regain my ___________ I went and talked
to someone who goes to the gym every day. That's right, every day. He's
Rodney Mitchell, manager of a local gym. I asked him what he does to keep fit.
He talks about training, which is doing exercises and ___________ training, which is
lifting heavy weights to build up your muscles and also cardio exercises.
Cardio is short for Cardio Vascular – which describes exercises which are good
for your heart and ___________ . Listen to Rodney, how often and how long does he
train.
Rodney Mitchell
I train on a good week, four times a week and each session will last about an hour, I have a,
mainly train doing ___________ training, weight training. And a little cardio, not as much as I
should but a little cardio.
Callum: Rodney trains for about an hour, four times a week! That's a lot more than
everybody I spoke to! I asked him how important he thought doing regular
exercise and keeping fit is.
Rodney Mitchell
Well I feel that it is relatively important as there are lots of health benefits to be gained from
exercise. As we see increasingly now people are becoming more and more __________ so to put in a small amount of exercise can help to reduce a person's ___________ and so forth, so yea, on a health aspect on also the general ____________ you get from exercise I'd recommend it.
Callum: He thinks that doing exercise is good for your health, it can help you lose
weight by__________ calories – calories is the term for the energy we get from
food. Doing exercise, he says, can also give you a sense of 'general well-being',
which is when you feel good in yourself.
Finally I asked him for some simple advice for getting and staying fit, things
that everyone can do, even if they cant' get to a gym. So listen out now for
some fitness _____________ .
Rodney Mitchell
A general, easy thing for most people to do is to go for maybe a walk in the park. If you
usually take the bus and it would really take you 10 minutes to walk to where you needed to
get to, try and incorporate that into your lifestyle. ______ in a building where you work in, take
the stairs instead of the lift. If you work on say the sixth floor and you think walking up six
flights of stairs is too much then maybe take the lift to the third floor then walk up three
flights, and so forth.
Callum: Some excellent advice there – go for a walk, don't take the bus for short
__________ and use the stairs and not the lifts.
Well all that talk of exercise makes me want to get out and do something – so
I'm going to hop on my bicycle and __________ home. Hope you have a good and
healthy weekend.

I WILL PUBLISH THE COMPLETE VERSION TOGETHER WITH OUR NEXT POST

REMEMBER YOU CAN SEND ME THE WRITING I SUGGESTED IN THE PREVIOUS POST FOR CORRECTION

Dear all,
Welcome to our blog. I will keep in touch with you three times a week on the same days we usually have our lessons. All the posts will be linked to the topic of our new unit (LEADING A HEALTHY AND AN UNHEALTHY LIFE).

VIDEO
Our first post will be a video-based task. I would like you to watch this excerpt from the film SUPERSIZE ME! and to post a message in the "comments" section including:
a) an overall opinion on the topic / something that might have called your attention / something which you did not know and found interesting, etc.
b) a comment on whether you would do an experiment like this or not and why.

READING

READ THE FOLLOWING TEXT AND DO THE TASKS BELOW

The Man Who Destroyed Meal Times
Fri, Jan 18 2007

Richard McDonald, who founded the McDonald's restaurant chain, died in 1998 but as long as our civilization survives he will never be forgotten. The golden arches he invented seem to infest the planet like a bright yellow plague. On American highways where once there were spectacular views stretching to the horizon, the landscape is now dominated by fluorescent plastic letter Ms, the height of four-storey buildings.
McDonald's restaurants are impossible to ignore. They are found in over 96 countries, including a vegetarian version in non-beef-eating India. Last year the chain's busiest restaurant was the Moscow McDonald's in Pushkin square.
It is widely thought that the restaurant's opening there, in the 1980s, was largely responsible for introducing capitalism to the old Soviet Union. This year a new McDonald's will be opened somewhere in the world every three hours. The company is obviously aiming for world domination, and is destroying traditional eating habits wherever it goes. In Japan the arrival of McDonald's has even overcome the traditional taboo about eating with your fingers while standing up, which was always regarded as bad manners.
Richard McDonald's has taken his place among the people who have shaped the modern world and lifestyle -- every day 32 million people worldwide eat a "Big-Mac". But he has altered far more than just our eating habits and skyline. His fast-food chain has fundamentally changed human behavior in every country that has been "McColonised", and it is argued that this is responsible for causing obesity among millions of its customers through the easy availability of a cheap 500-calorie meal with an above average fat content.
It all began in 1948 in San Bernardino, California. In the post-war "Baby-Boom" American families were becoming increasingly concerned about value for money. Richard "Dick" McDonald's was a quiet, thoughtful man, who had already earned himself a reputation as a marketing genius-he invented drive-in laundries and was the first person to use neon signs to advertise. Richard and his brother had the idea of feeding people quickly and cheaply from a simple, fixed menu without making them get out of their Chevrolets. And so McDonald's, and the concept of "Fast-Food", was born. The company expanded quickly and in 1955 the McDonald's brothers sold their 25 restaurants, although Richard continued as a consultant until the seventies.
In the 50s and 60s, before McDonald's restaurants took over mealtimes, the "dinner", the traditional American restaurant, had been considered king. American families used to go to their local dinner to eat freshly made food in a relaxed atmosphere, and to chat to friends and neighbors. This "Golden Age" was destroyed by the golden M restaurants and the new concept of fast food which has helped to create today's society where people don't even know their neighbors and are so suspicious of strangers. It is perhaps no coincidence that several of America's worst mass murders have taken place in McDonald's.
The stuff at McDonald's are all taught at the McDonald's university, set up by Richard McDonald to maintain high standards in his restaurants. It emphasizes how the company is "One big family" (but with strict rules-e.g. nobody can 'wear vulgar nail polish'). This model has been borrowed by numerous other companies from Ford to Microsoft, and is said to have spread American values worldwide more effectively than any other US export.
With his system Richard McDonald has given us faster food but this has arguably created a demand for everything else to be faster too. Modern society has become impatient and easily frustrated. Above all Richard McDonald created an unstoppable monster that gave birth to the phrase "Junk food". The world will never recover the innocence it lost when it first tasted a "Big-Mac".
http://www.notelay.com/articles/people/richard_mcdonald/

TRUE OR FALSE

1. People in India do not eat at Mc Donald's because they do not eat meat.

2. A new Mc Donald's is opened in the USA every three hours.

3. According to the author of the article, people are fat fundamentally because of Mc Donald's.

4. They invented fast food to make people get our of their cars and enjoy their meals.

5. Mc Donald's has created a society where people don't know and, therefore, don't trust each other.

(THE KEY TO THIS TASK WILL BE PUBLISHED ON FRIDAY)

WRITING

2. Choose ONE of the following topics and write an essay. Remember to use appropriate connectivity and to express your ideas clearly.

A.-
“Modern society has become impatient and easily frustrated”. Explain whether you agree or disagree with this statement. Give reasons for your position. Provide examples.

B.-
“The company is obviously aiming for world domination”. Explain whether you agree or disagree with this statement. Give reasons for your position. What other forms of colonization do you know? Discuss.

(YOU CAN SEND THE ANSWER TO THIS TASK BY E-MAIL FOR CORRECTION)